Cat Rescue Guy

Jill and Rachel both independently noticed the cat stuck in a tree for one night in a neighbor's yard in Covington, and both were very concerned about it. They did not know the cat, and it did not belong to the neighbor, but Jill recalled seeing the cat in the neighborhood before, because it looks very much like one of her own cats. The fire department came out to see if they could help, but they succeeded only in scaring the cat up to the tip top of the tree, and that is where I found him when I arrived. I had doubts that I would be able to help this cat, because the tree was pretty small and skinny, and it was clear that I could not go all the way to the top of the tree within arm's reach of the cat. Using the rescue pole was the only option here, but I wasn't sure if I could safely get close enough to reach the cat even with that pole. After I installed my rope as high as I dared, I tested it to see how the tree reacted to my weight, and, while it swayed a bit, the movem...

Betty had never been stuck in a tree before, and she didn't like it one bit. This one-year-old Russian Blue kitty climbed an ugly Pine tree just inside a wooded area in Gulfport, Mississippi, and, when she realized she was stuck 40 feet high in that tree, she started crying. She cried loudly and constantly, and, even though her mama, Maraya, heard her, she kept crying anyway. Betty wanted to make sure the world knew she was miserable and needed help. Help arrived the next morning when I climbed up the tree to her. She was happy to see me and desperate to get down from that tree. Since I was not approaching her fast enough, she came down a bit to me and looked for a way to get on my lap. She was not going to miss this opportunity to go down. I spread the cat bag on my lap and then lifted her up off the limb and placed her gently on my lap. She was content as I petted and reassured her, and then I pulled up the sides of the bag all around her and secured her in the bag. Betty was hap...

I have to confess that I was not thrilled to hear from William about a cat stuck in a tree in Mobile, Alabama. While I am willing, in principle, to drive up to Alaska to rescue a cat in a tree, there is a practical limit to how far I can go, and the three-hour drive to Mobile is about that limit. But when I learned that efforts to find local resources had failed and that the cat had been stuck in the tree for two weeks, I could not simply ignore that. Once I know about it, I'm going to do it. William had just come home after spending more than two weeks in the hospital recovering from severe injuries due to a crazed driver who intentionally tried to run over him with his car. William was hit hard three times but managed to keep himself above the car each time. He felt fortunate to survive even though he was now in pain and having to use a walker to get around. Even though William had every reason to think of no one but himself, he could not help but notice the cat in the back yard ...

Sophie, a one-year-old Siamese mix, got stuck in a tree just outside the fence of her own backyard, and she was not happy about it. Neither was Angela, her owner. Sophie was about 35 feet high in a skinny, crooked tree and had been there one night before I arrived to bring her down. She got upset with my rope installation process and was unsure of me when I climbed up to her. This blue-eyed beauty even hissed at me when I reached my hand out to her too soon. I got the message that I was pushing her too fast, so I backed off a minute and was more slow and gentle with her after that. Sophie responded by being the sweet, friendly girl she really is, and we became friends up there in the tree. Since she showed an interest in stepping onto my lap, I opened up the cat bag and spread it out over my lap, so that I could get her in the bag without needing to scruff her. Once she was on my lap, she was standing on the bottom of the bag, so all I needed to do was pull the sides of the bag up arou...

Sylvester's rescue story deserves special attention, because his case illustrates just how serious and tragic it can be when a cat gets stuck in a tree. Sylvester is lucky. He is fine, because he was rescued quickly, but for other cats who get into this particular situation, the results can be deadly. Most of the time, when a cat gets stuck in a tree, he can move around, walk out a limb, or even climb higher, but he is stuck only in the sense that he does not know how to climb down. Sometimes, however, a cat can get wedged into a tight, vertical fork of the tree and be unable to escape it. His front legs dangle on one side, and his back legs dangle on the other.  He is trapped in the fork and cannot get out of it.  The more he struggles to get out, the deeper he sinks into the fork, and the tighter it squeezes his body. His front legs are unable to push his body upward, because he can't get a good grip on the vertical surface of the stem below him. His front claws don't hel...